Offshore Wind for Territories Act

Floor Speech

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Miss GONZALEZ-COLON of Puerto Rico. Mr. Speaker, I want to thank the honorable Delegate from Guam (Ms. Bordallo) for taking this initiative to present H.R. 6665, and Chairman Bishop and Ranking Member Grijalva for having moved this legislation to continue to extend equal treatment to the American community of citizens in the territories.

It has been a privilege to join in on bipartisan proposals for applying, uniformly, the Federal laws for the benefit of the people of our territories. Equal treatment for all American communities is a goal that should be shared by all in this Congress, and we will continue to seek it.

America's continued prosperity requires a modernized energy system that makes the best use of all the domestic resources available, including expanding use of wind in our domestic waters.

Puerto Rico has directly experienced the need to have better energy infrastructure in place. Today, only 2 percent of our energy in Puerto Rico comes just from renewable sources. Our plans for long-term recovery of our electric grid include a much higher reliance on renewable energy to reduce environmental impact and increase efficiency.

Since, today, many of the territories rely on expensive diesel- or fuel oil-generation systems, an integration of greater diversity of generating sources will provide them greater flexibility in their development plans.

At the same time, however, this upgrade on our generation's sources should be conducted in each jurisdiction based on its technical, economic, and environmental viability and rely more on private investment participation instead of taxpayer funding.

This legislation will direct the Department of the Interior to study what is the viability of Continental Shelf wind resources off the shore of the territories. If the result is positive, then the Department of the Interior will initiate the process of auctioning the leasing rights for such projects on the same basis as for the waters outside the States. If such development proceeds, 2.5 percent of the revenues collected will be reserved for coral reef protection and 37.5 percent for the respective territory for environmental remediation uses.

This way is the better way to develop energy resources and provide, also, funding for the territories to take their own measures for securing better environmental conditions. I expect the House will support this effort to bring uniform treatment to all jurisdictions under the American flag in an important area of policy, which is energy, and open up investment and development opportunities to all of us.

Once again, I want to thank my colleague from Guam (Ms. Bordallo) and the chairman of the committee for having this bill, and, of course, for their support and legacy on behalf of equal treatment for Puerto Rico and the territories.

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